The eagle, now dead in the tree in the pictures on this page are a shock to any reasonable person. It is testament that there is little that can be done even if a strong suspicion exists regarding who might have been the perpetrator of such an atrocity. The dead eagle is the only proof available. Assumption and speculation, no matter how well filtered through reason is not proof.
The cowardly, illegal shooting of this eagle would have caused the shooter dismay seeing the body of the bird getting caught up in the dead branches, instead of falling to the ground to be disposed of clandestinely.
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| Lost to us. Why? |
It has often been said: Farmers observations are quite good, but their interpretation is rubbish.
Henry David Thoreau wrote: By avarice and selfishness, and a grovelling habit, from which none of us is free, of regarding the soil as property, or the means of acquiring property chiefly, the landscape is deformed, husbandry is degraded with us, and the farmer leads the meanest of lives. He knows Nature but as a robber. ......Henry David Thoreau.
In the days of old, farmers saw wedge tailed eagles on the carcases of lambs and carrying the carcases of lambs, which is a good enough and simple observation, but they interpreted it as the eagles having killed the lambs. Never suspecting their husbandry may be the cause of the ewes giving birth to weak or dead lambs. These carcases, if left lying around could spread or create disease environments, but removed, cleaned up by the eagles would circumvent that happening. Eagles are doing a service for the farmer, but that worthy doesn't think it through and reaches for the gun.
Eagles are not starlings, they don't flock. So any given area might have two or during breeding seasons only four birds would use a very large area. Lambing is generally 3 or 4 weeks. The ewes protect their lambs and after a couple of weeks, healthy lambs are too robust for an eagle to consider as live food. Rabbits are another story as are foxes
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| Enough to make anyone weep. |
Even small struggling lambs are very heavy. Can an eagle carry one such and if so, would they pass over a dead lamb, which is their preference as they are carrion feeders, that will hang inert in their talons and feed their family just as well? It beggars belief that any farmer doesn't protect the a wedge tailed eagle and yet so many are killed through long entrenched misinformation and ignorance passed down through the generations and followed without further examination.
Wedge tailed eagles are protected by law, certainly in Victoria. It seems to make little difference as many people still can kill with impunity if there are no witnesses.
We know, or we all should know, unless there is something seriously wrong with out thought processes. Alive, eagles are wonderful, they help people who farm wisely, and they enhance all our lives by occupying their place in our world and engaging us with a beauty we can only envy. Dead, an eagle screams at human stupidity that should make us all feel guilty and ashamed.
